Contents

Synopsis

In the continuation of "Holly Jolly Secrets Part I," the Ice King pulls out all stops to prevent Finn and Jake from discovering his most shocking secret...

Plot

The scene opens up with Jake screaming (from the finale of the previous episode) but he was actually singing "Alouette." Jake is wearing a yarmulke and scarf. Then they decide to watch the Ice King's secret video, thinking that it might show his evil plans. The first video reveals that his life is stagnating, so he weeps, and BMO discovers a "code" in the pattern of his tears. Through a strange, random process, the code forms a picture of Gunter. The second video is of him recording the Wildberry Princess while in a cage in his palace. He was asking Wildberry how she felt about an event, and it turns out that Ice King was talking about why Gunter was standing in the corner (Gunter tried to eat the Ice King's socks).

In the Ice King's attempt to stop Finn and Jake from watching his secret tapes, he makes an army of snowmen. The Ice King breaks into the Tree Fort through the chimney. In the process, his blue robes become covered in soot, so he takes them off and covers himself with Finn and Jake's red tablecloth. Once inside, the Ice King lets the snowmen in through the front door. Finn and Jake rush to finish watching the videos and determine the Ice King's evil secrets. The snowmen attack, but they are easily defeated, and BMO begins to play the final tape.

The third tape reveals that a long time ago (prior to the Mushroom War), the Ice King was a human named Simon Petrikov, who had a fiancée named Betty. He was an antiquarian (a person who studies and collects ancient artifacts), and purchased a strange crown from a dock worker in Scandinavia. He took the crown home to show Betty, and when he put the crown on his head for a laugh, he started to see visions and hallucinations (references to his "Wizard Eyes"). He fought with them, shouted at them before realizing it was the crown sending the visions into his head. He quickly took it off after his realization, he had no recollection of his actions, but what transpired during that time eventually caused Betty to leave him (Simon noted, after taking off the crown, she was "Looking at me with such contempt.") As the video progresses, Simon begins to look more and more like the Ice King as we know him. His skin takes on a blue tint, his hair begins turning white, his nose starts to be pointy and a beard slowly appears on his face. He is increasingly distraught about the loss of Betty, his "princess," and his actions while under the influence of the crown. In the background of the video, we see an airplane flying over modern buildings, evidence of his life before the Mushroom War. We can also infer that the airplane was in fact a war plane, meaning that it was probably the beginning of the Mushroom War. Simon is aware that he is losing his mind, yet is unable to control it. In the end, he is accepting of his fate, and he begs for forgiveness for his actions to anyone who might come across his tapes.

When the video ends, it is revealed that the Ice King was not afraid of them finding out that he was once a human, rather, he was merely ashamed of having once worn glasses. This shows us he has completely lost and forgotten any trace of his human, past-self (also in the episode "I Remember You") yet his desire to have his beloved Betty back lives on in his obsession with capturing Princesses.

Finn and Jake feel "a fleeting moment of empathy for the biggest weirdo in Ooo," and from that time on they gather together once every year, wear Christmas sweaters, and watch videos. Shelby did the narrations on this ending scene.

Mentioned and Pictured

Songs

Trivia

Though the title card depicts penguins in the house, only Snow Men are inside in the episode.

Despite having ice powers and being able to form ice/snow creatures from purely his magic, Ice King chose not to use it, and instead brings them to life using magic after he had built them one by one.

In the scene where BMO tries to break the code, there is a pop-up card indicating what viewers are currently watching. It is not from Cartoon Network's control room but is a part of the episode. This is probably a joke on the fact that during this scene, the Ice King can be heard crying and nothing particularly funny or interesting is happening (A departure to what you normally find on Cartoon Network).

Simon said his body temperature was 30°C (86°F). This means he was about 7°C or 13°F below normal, at the time.

The picture of Simon and Betty has a man playing hockey in the background.

It would seem that Finn understands and is somewhat empathetic to the Ice King's past, as he willingly gives the Ice King back his tapes, telling BMO to eject the tape that tells the Ice King's story, and acknowledging that the tapes belong to him.

Simon said that he bought the crown, but in "What Have You Done?" Ice King said he made the crown with magic he stole, likely a reference to him not remembering his past.

Phil is the only one who is not wearing a sweater but he is wearing decorative underwear and a scarf.

BMO states that the third tape was the final one but in the previous episode there are six tapes in the case.

This is the first time all the main characters are shown in one episode.

The sweaters Finn and Jake are wearing appear again in the Cartoon Network game "Beemo Blitz."

There is a knife and two books under Finn's mattress, one of it has the picture of a jet and says "comix."

Some other tapes can be seen on the ground next to treasure when Ice King opens the door for the snowmen to get in.

It is stated that Simon bought the Crown in Scandinavia. Scandinavia is a real place on Earth, consisting of the countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark; though sometimes includes Finland, Iceland and the Åland Islands.

Episode connections

This is the second half of a two-part episode. The first half is Holly Jolly Secrets Part I.

The title card is similar to the one in Holly Jolly Secrets Part I, except Finn and Jake are sleeping, and Ice King and penguins are in the picture.

This is the first episode where a song was sung, for the second time in another episode. The Ice King is seen singing the "Fry Song," sung previously in the episode "It Came from the Nightosphere" by Marceline.

The hallucinations and visions caused by the crown may be the "Stanky Old Wizard Eyes" the Ice King spoke about in "Mortal Recoil."

Natasha Allegri stated that the reason Marceline was outside the window was that it was supposed to be a reference to her very first on-screen appearance in "Evicted!."

This is the first episode to reveal the Ice King's past life; this was further expanded upon in "I Remember You," which also explains why Marceline chose not to come into the house to watch the Ice King's tapes.

When BMO "[breaks] the code" in Ice King's tapes, BMO prints out a picture of Gunter drawn with the letter M. This hints towards how Ice King calls Marceline Gunter, as in the episode "Simon & Marcy," interpreting the letter M to stand for Marceline as it does in the Marceline's carvings of M in Finn and Jake's house and the cave in "Evicted!"

In the tape, Simon mentions a "labyrinth in his brain", which was shown to be quite literal in the episode "Broke His Crown.

Cultural references

At the beginning of the episode Jake was singing Alouette which is a popular French Canadian children's song.

The tale of Ice King is similar to that of Gollum of J.R.R. Tolkien's works: a humanoid being who gains power by way of a precious artifact but becomes twisted in mind and body into an immortal yet strange state. There is also some similarity to the depiction of Batman villain Mr. Freeze, particularly as depicted by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice."

Ice King resembles Santa Claus a couple of times, first by having a big white beard, then coming down/through the chimney to get in the house, wearing a red tablecloth as clothes, and later having a big red nose from an apple. Also, the Ice King's comments to the Snow Man with the apple on its face refer to the Christmas tale "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

The snowmen explore the kitchen and become fascinated by the icebox, and one uses an apple from a bowl of fruit as its nose; these are likely in reference to classic Christmas short "The Snowman" in which the titular character behaves similarly.

When the old Tart Toter turns his head around and clings to the ceiling, it is a reference to a scene in the movie Trainspotting.

Possibly a member of USS Enterprise crew.

When Ice King enters in Finn and Jake's tree, a poster can be seen behind him of a man with a gun in his hand. There is a badge in his chest, similar to the ones used by the crew of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek series. By the color of the uniform, the man could be Mr. Spock.

Errors

After Finn says "We gotta crack the code on Ice King's evil tapes" and grabs two of them, one disappears (BMO is playing one and there are four in the suitcase). When they are shown wearing sweaters the tape appears on the ground.

When Finn and Jake first enter their room to keep watching the tapes, Jake's viola was there and just a part of his pillow was inside the drawer, but when they are fighting the snowmen the entire pillow is inside the drawer and Jake's violin is missing. Also, a frame with a green background that was hung on Finn's bed is seen above Jake's picture of Lady Rainicorn and later Lady Rainicorn disappears from the picture leaving only the violet background.

The fruit bowl one of the snowmen put his head in was not there when Ice King was looking for something to wear, the table was bigger, and there were neither a helmet behind the furniture nor a broom next to the entrance of the room. Also, a violet cup and some papers that were on the main table are seen on other table when the snowmen find the ice in the fridge.

The apple a snowman had as nose only had one leaf, but when Ice King picks it up it after it fell off the snowman's face it had two, then Ice King puts it on his pointy nose and it had one again.

Finn and Jake's beds seem to be in a different room this time.

When the snowmen lift Finn's bed the stuff under Finn's mattress changes places, the arms of the bearskin are gone and its color has changed.

The horns of the bearskin that is next to the chimney are gone when they start watching what Simon recorded, the horns were there at the beginning of the episode.

Mr. Pig's nose was darker than the rest of his skin and he had black eyes with yellow rims, here his nose is the same color of his skin and his eyes have white rims.

Ice King takes off his robe because it is dirty, and his beard is also dirty, but in the next scene, it is spotless.

When the Ice King first sees Finn and Jake from the side and in Christmas sweaters, Finn is left of Jake. But when the camera views Finn and Jake from the front after Ice King shapes his first Snow Man, the two have swapped places.

When Ice King is shooting the apple of Gunter 's head, it is snowing heavily. When Ice King goes to Finn and Jake 's house there is no sign of snow.

Storyline analysis

In the tapes, a Scientific Parasite can be seen in Simon's chest pocket on his suit jacket. This implies that he was an intellectual being, which makes sense, since he was an antiquarian. This is also an indication that either: Scientific Parasites existed before the Mushroom War, or that Simon Petrikov did in fact live in the Land of Ooo.

In the photo of Simon and his fiance Betty, Simon can be seen to have eyes that are simply black dots, like many of the humanoid characters in Adventure Time. However, the Simon that is recording the video diary after he has discovered the crown's powers has white eyes with black rims, as does the present-day Ice King. This seems to indicate that his unusual eyes are a side effect of having worn the crown and been controlled by its power.

This can also be seen in "I Remember You" when the photo of Simon in the newspaper (which seems to have been taken before he discovered the crown, as Betty can be partially seen in the photo) shows him with purely black eyes, but the Simon in the flashback scene, who has evidently had the crown in his possession for some time, has white eyes with black rims (again, as does the present Ice King).

The Ice King's crown was revealed to give ice powers in exchange for one's sanity in this episode, though Jake has been seen wearing it in "Thank You," and Cake has been seen wearing the Ice Queen's tiara (and using it) in "Fionna and Cake". According to Adam Muto, this is due to the fact that the crown already had an owner when they wore it.